What lies beyond

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Klthyli had been obsessively reading the same sentence for a few days now. During her daily exploration of the galaxies, she found the tattered leather-bound notebook floating in the void. From reading its entries, the journal belonged to a human—a species that thrived on a small blue planet, which the humans referred to as Earth, just at the corner of the HCC-14056 Galaxy—Milky way.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she surveyed the void before her. Her crew had been cleaning up the debris of the humans’ ship. Since their tech was not as advanced as the other species in the universe, the ship was unable to survive the small wormhole that formed just right outside their galaxy’s orbit. It was the farthest that the humans have ever ventured and she wondered how many more years it would take for the primitive species to reach the level of the Celestial’s tech that her species achieved centuries ago. She and her crew have found several corpses and they all held the same expressions: wide-eyed, mouths that gaped open as the Void took pleasure in their screams and fears, skin that turned unnaturally blue due to lack of oxygen and the inability to handle the freezing temperatures, and their eyes—oh, their eyes! Klthyli loved staring at them. Some mirrored the colors that can be found in different galaxies, and some reflected the dark void around them. They were far too different from her species and according to her experiments, she had found that some humans had the Celestial’s DNA in them—a piece of true biological evidence that some Celestials have chosen the primitive beings as their mate.

“Klthyli.”

“Yes, Commander Seph?”

Seph was a work of art—in Klthyli’s opinion. He was made of carbon like the humans but all thanks to his Titan’s DNA, he was unaffected by diseases or the effects of being exposed to harsh environments. Titans were difficult to kill and their lifespan was just as long as the Celestials—Gods, as what the other species would call them. It was a great thing that the Titans had difficulty pro-creating because if they didn’t, the universe would be overpopulated by them. If only he would let her experiment on him—investigate what could destroy their cells and find their relation to the Celestials. However, experimenting on a live subject was forbidden. So the secrets that lie in the DNA of the Titans and the Celestials would forever remain a secret from her. For now. Sure, she knew some knowledge from the blood samples but experimenting on something alive would provide deeper insight than those samples.

Seph frowned as his ebony feathered wings vanished behind his back. It was told that Seph had 30 wings in total when he was in his Titan form and his right hand alone could crush a giant star. Thankfully, the laws had made sure that the Celestials’ and Titans’ powers were always kept in check to keep the universe whole. And so Seph could easily fit in my ship as well, she thought.

Klthyli and her crew were Elysians. They had emerald skin, leafy hair that changed color per cycle, and deep brown eyes—and they were all women. It was told that her species was born from the Mother Tree found in the mythological place called Eden. She never checked for its accuracy but what her species knew for sure was that the planet they had was long destroyed by their careless ancestors. So whatever was left of them, thrived on this ship, repopulating by cloning since their DNA was not compatible with anyone else’s they have found so far. Seph, the Titan, was the ambassador of the Celestials. He had been watching over them since the beginning. Initially, he was sent to make sure that the Elysians would not break any laws or that their species remained alive. But being with them for thousands of years had greyed his morals and his mission. Before he realized it, he was helping them. He was attached and he became theirs.

“Your crew had found a live human.”

“A live human?” She grinned, flashing her rows of pointed teeth. How delightful! She thought as she sauntered toward the dining hall. Lights above them flashed as the compressed stars struggled against the majick that contained them. The interior of the ship was filled with colorful florae found across the galaxy. They moved on their own, spoke softly amongst themselves, and fed on their remains and waste while they provided the air they could breathe. They weren’t always as docile. It took her species many years of experimentation to make them useful and abiding. When she entered the dining hall, her crew were already serving up plates of meat to each other, as the live human was bound on a steel throne, in the center of the hall. When she and Seph entered, her crew paused, bowed with a fist on their chests, and grinned widely at her—proud to show off their work.

And they had every right to do so! The human was thicker than the corpses that they found so far. The veins on his arms were prominent and she enjoyed the thrum of his blood that flowed through them as she caressed his skin. His muscles were stiffer and she was captured by how they reminded her of valleys. She ran her fingers through his dark hair as she inhaled his scent. This one smelled different from the others. Of course, she only had experience with the dead but this human was certainly a bounty to celebrate.

“Klthyli, should we copy his memories?” One of her crew asked and the moistness of her lips indicated her hunger.

“Absolutely.”

“Do we clone him too?”

“Yes.” They never had a live human, so the ones they ended up cloning were never as exciting. They would end up blankly staring at them as their brain remained vacant of the knowledge that they seek. Now that they had a live one, her brain ran with many ideas that she wanted to do with him.

Klthyli examined him once again. He struggled against his bounds to free himself despite his past failures. A silencer chip was injected into his throat so even when the small lump kept bobbing on his trachea and his mouth gaped open, no sound was ever produced. Her stomach growled as her sharp fingernail ran across his arm, and his life force gushed out in return. Her crew immediately gathered his DNA and transferred it over to the machine to duplicate the human before them. His blue eyes stared at her with an expression that they saw too often from the corpses they have rescued, and she savored it.

Not once had she seen a human so beautiful, and she wished to have this experience replicated over and over again. She leaned into the human’s ear, repressing the excitement in her voice as she repeated, “Scream as much as you want, but nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space.”

When she pulled away, small beads of moisture poured out of his pores. Its scent drew her crew closer to him. This was all for science, she thought. And the best way to truly know the species was by devouring them. Fortunately, Seph’s favorite meat was the humans, so their little secret would always remain a secret.

Note from me:

Hi! Thank you for reading: What lies beyond. I truly appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much as I did when I wrote it. Let me know in the comments what you think.

This short was inspired by my main series Soul Exchange. I am not a sci-fi writer, however, in that series, I would mention different worlds and dimensions. The Elysians were in issue 3 of House of Trials: The Rogue.

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